Wendy, now I understand what you thought, Thank you! ★My trip to Kyoto from March 31 to April 2, 2022. Day 2-2(1) Daigo-ji Temple It was a perfect day to visit Daigo-ji Temple. It was beautiful day and weeping cherries and Somei-yoshinos were in peak bloom. Daigo-ji has known as a cherry temple since Toyotomi Hideyoshi had a Hamami Party there in 1598. Now there is a festival which replicate the parade for Hideyoshi’s Hanami Party. Daigo-ji temple is a World Heritage Site and a very large area. It divided into 2 parts: Kami-daigo, upper Daigo and Shimo-daigo, lower parts. Kami-daigo is a mountain area. You have to walk 60 minutes on the mountain walk to get there. I haven’t visited there yet. Shimo-daigo is still very large area. Itis famous for weeping cherries. I don’t know any other places which has so many Weeping cherries. It is divided into 3 paid areas, Reihoukan (museum), Sanboin and Garan (a complex of the temple buildings), and a free area with a restaurant and stalls, and corridors. There are some weeping cherries at the entrance gate but there are mostly Somei-yoshinos on the corridors. Main area of the temple is Garan but we visited Reihokan. Reihokan Reihokan is a museum. Many large Sidare-zakuras and other single cherries are planted around the museum buildings. There are some double cherries called Hakusan-O-temari. But they hadn’t started to bloom yet. Also Yae-beni-shidare hadn't started yet.
★My trip to Kyoto from March 31 to April 2, 2022. Day 2-2(2) Daigo-ji Temple 2 Garan Garan is the main complex of the temple building. There are many Buddhism architectures scattered in a very wide area with a lot of cherries and other trees. Garan part starts with the Nio-mon gate. There’s a corridor of Japanese maples inside the Nio-mon gate. It continues more than 100 meters. But they hadn’t started yet. Maples start a little after Somei-yoshinos. When Somei-yoshinos were falling, maples become beautiful with fresh green or red leaves. Kondo (main temple building) area You might not be able to see from my pictures but there are so many young weeping cherries in Kondo area and Goju-no-tou(five-story-pagoda) area. In Daigo-ji, people donate weeping cherries for their wishes. Seiryu-gu and Goju-no-tou (five-story-pagoda) area There were some large beautiful shidare-zakuras and many small ones in this area. Fudo-do, Soshi-do and etc. area Benten-do and a pond garden area There aren’t so many cherries in the garden area. It’s more famous for colored leaves in autumn. There’s a Japanese style café restaurant” Ajariryo Juan” by the pond. We hoped to have lunch there but there were long waiting list. We should have come and booked before we saw Garan area. We gave up and went back to the free area near the entrance.
★My trip to Kyoto from March 31 to April 2, 2022. Day 2-2(3) Daigo-ji (3) Free Area When we went back to the free area near the temple gate, all the Bento lunch boxes were sold out. We had snacks like a meat bun or a hot-dog. Sanboin Sanboin Temple is a house where the feudal archbishops stayed. The present buildings were built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1598 for his Hanami Party, "Daigo no Hanami". He made the cherry garden using 700 cherries gathered from all over Kinki district. There were some large Shidare-zakuras blooming near the entrance of the area. First we went to the garden called Kanjinrin-en at the back left of the site. I have visited there March 23,2019 and posted about the early blooming cherries. (#217) There sidare-zakuras were blooming beautifully and O-kan-zakuras were finishing, but still showing their colors. We had drinks there. Then we entered the Sanboin building. At the entrance of the building, there was a small Yae-beni-shidare. Sanboin has beautiful Japanese gardens inside but there’s no cherry tree in the gardens. You can see large pictures of cherries and other plants on the Fusuma doors of the building. (Pictures are not permitted.) Then we walked the corridor of Somei-yoshinos again to the parking lots and saw a small temple and large Sidare-zakuras. Cherries in Daigo-ji was unbelievably wonderful on that day, so we decided to come back for the illumination. There’s still time before the illumination started, so we walked back to Daigo station and went back to Kyoto. There’s wide pedestrian walk between the temple and Daigo Station and cherries are planted both side of the walk. But they are mostly double cherries and hadn’t started blooming yet.
Hi Mariko, I thought of your postings when reading this article this morning. Climate crisis: Kyoto cherry blossom season shifted by global warming and urban development Did you notice anything different on your visit ?
Japanese new school year starts in April. Until 20 years ago, Cherries were full bloom on the Entering School Ceremony Day. Students took pictures under cherry blossom But recently cherries beccame full bloom in March. Sometimes students take photos under cherry blossom on Graduation Ceremony. I felt cherries were really quick in these 5 years. You can see the change on the data of Japan Meteorological Agency. Booming Date Place 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 Tokyo 3/28 3/31 3/16 3/25 3/23 3/21 3/21 3/17 3/21 3/14 3/14 3/20 Kyoto 3/28 4/ 3 3/22 3/27 3/27 3/23 3/31 3/22 3/27 3/22 3/16 3/24 Nara 3/31 4/ 3 3/22 3/27 3/27 3/23 4/ 3 3/24 3/29 3/26 3/21 3/25 Full Bloom Date ***** 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 Tokyo 4 /6 4/ 6 3/22 3/30 3/29 3/31 4/ 2 3/24 3/27 3/22 3/22 3/27 Kyoto 4/ 7 4 /9 3/30 4/ 2 4/ 1 4/ 2 4/ 7 3/28 4/ 6 3/30 3/26 3/30 Nara 4/ 8 4/ 9 3/29 4/ 1 3/31 4/ 2 4/ 8 3/29 4/ 5 4/ 3 3/30 3/30
So looking at your stats Mariko, in another 30 years they will be flowering in February. And that's if global warming doesn't accelerate faster. Good to hear from people, rather than a press release. Thank you.
Sorry, I’m writing so slowly and now it’s time for roses in Tokyo and around. ★My trip to Kyoto from March 31 to April 2, 2022. Day 2-3(1) Kiyomizu-dera Temple to Maruyama Park and Yasaka Shrine (1) Kiyomizu-dera Temple is always worth visiting. It is known for its butai, high wooden stage or terrace. It locates halfway up on Mt. Otowa, so you can see the view of the city of Kyoto from there. In the temple cherries were blooming but maple and other greeneries were not yet. It was a few days early for the best time. There are many shops on the approach slopes to the temple. Now even under COVID-19, people came back to the temple. Entrance gate and the area of temple buildings near the entrance Main hall and the views from butai, wooden stage or terrace Japanese Azaleas were blooming in the woods. Three-story Pagoda called Koyasu-no-tō and the view from there The view from the garden in the down in the middle We enjoyed early spring of Kiyomizu Temple.
I'm not quite sure it is because of global warming or climate change of the earth, but I hope to have rather cool spring again and we can enjoy cherries longer. I wish to have cold winter and cool spring next year. But I'm afraid the war in Ukraine cause not only tragedy to the people but worsen global warming.
★My trip to Kyoto from March 31 to April 2, 2022. Day 2-3(2) Kiyomizu-dera Temple to Maruyama Park and Yasaka Shrine (2) After we enjoyed cherries in Kiyomizu-dera, we didn’t go back to the bas stop we came and we walked San’nen-zaka slope, Ninen-zaka slope, Nene-no-michi to Maruyama Park and Yasaka shrine. San’nen-zaka slope Nene-no-michi means "Nene’s Path". Somei-yoshinos were planted on the one side of the road. Nene is the wife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi who had Daigo-no Hanami in 1598. After his death, she came to live near Kodai-ji Temple (I visited there in 2013 and posted) and commuted there to pray for her husband’s soul. So now the road there is called Nene-no michi. Maruyama Park is known for cherries. There are more than 700 cherries in the park. There are large shidare-zakuras there. But Shidare-zakura called Gion-shidare is the most famous one. It was about 80 years old and a famous cherry gardener, Sano Toemon is taking care of it. He is 94 years old now. It’s much better shape than I saw in 2013. It was wrong condition at that time because of droppings of crows. I think it’s the reason why they were burning bonfires around the tree. 2013 Then we went through Yasaka Shrine. But there aren’t many cherries. We took a bus and a train to Daigo city.
First Posting of 2023 I’m sorry I didn’t post anything this year. I’m so disappointed and became lazy because when I realized that cherry blog stated again, my cherry season this year had already finished. This year cherries bloomed very quickly almost all over Japan and now cherries are still blooming only in Hokkaido, the northern island. Cherry Blossom Forecast 2023 In Tokyo, Somei-yoshinos started blooming on March 14, tie records as 2020 and 2021 and they were in full bloom from March 22 to March 28. We had very warm Mach all over Japan. Not only in Tokyo but even in suburbs and countryside Somei-yoshinos bloomed almost together and even in Tohoku, the notth part of main island and Nagano, the middle part with higher altitude, they started blooming at the end of March for the first time. Now cherries are blooming only in Hokkaido. I was working until the end of March, so I couldn’t enjoy cherries in Tokyo this year. But still I saw good cherries in Chiba prefecture, Kyoto and Hirosaki, in Aomori prefecture. I’ll write about them later. But now I post the site of Japan Guide, “Top 10 Cherry Blossom site in Kyoto”. I don’t agree with their choice, but I still think you can enjoy this site.
Maybe not your choice of order Mariko, but I enjoyed them very much indeed. So a big thanks for posting.
@eteinindia, Mariko, thanks for checking in! And thanks for recording here this year's early blooming season, and the japan-guide link.
First Posting of 2024 Blooming of Somei-yoshino in Tokyo On March 29, 2024, Meteorological Agency finally declared the blooming of the sample tree of Somei-yoshino in Yasukuni Shrine. They said that 11 flowers were opened in the afternoon of March 29,2024. It is 5 days later than the average and 15 days later than last year. It is also the slowest bloom in decade. We had a very very warm winter this year. It was too warm for dormancy breaking. Then from the beginning of March, rather clod weather came. The addition of the highest temperature from February 1 went over 600 degrees on March 18, 2024, but Somei-yoshino didn’t bloom more 10 days. ★Cherry Blossom Forecast 2024 by Weather Map ★Cherry Blossom Forecast 2024 by Japan-guide.com My extremely busy job finished yesterday. Today I visited Koishikawa Botanical Garden after one and a half month. There weren’t many flowers blooming like usual spring. Warm winter weather made the early blooming cherries like Kan-zakura, Kawazu-zakura and O-Kamakura bloomed earlier than usual. Mume also bloomed as usual. So now Koishikawa Botanical Garden has flowerless spring yet. Shidare-zakura in the woods was full bloom. Unknown red tall cherry was blooming. O-Kan-zakuea and Hayazaki-Oshima finished and green leaves started. Garden was very quiet and I saw some white birds. 。
I’m sorry I became so lazy for writing in English. It’s May 3, 2024, today. Cherries in Tokyo finished long ago. Now Cherry front has already arrived the middle of Hokkaido, the north island. Cherries there are O-yama-zakuras. Somei-yoshinos are finishing in Hakodate, the south part of Hokkaido. .So my postings are out of date. But I’ll show you what I saw this year. ----------------------------------------------. Jindai Botanical Park on April 4, 2024, No.1 Somei-yosino in Tokyo became full bloom on April 5. This year was not good for cherry viewing in Tokyo because there were only a few fine days after Somei-yoshino started blooming. On April 1st, I went to Seijo-gakuen-mae. There is a small cheey lane. Somei-yoshinos were only 30% bloom but one small tree was full bloom. It has a name plate of Somei-yoshino, but I thought it was Jindai-Akebono. So I went to Jindai Botanical Park on April 4. It has the original tree of Jindai-akebono. It locates in the suburb of Tokyo and Somei-yoshinos were only 50% bloom. The original Jindai-Akebono tree was not in good condition, but it was full bloom. Other Jindai-akebonos were young and healthy blooming beautifully. Jindai Botanical Park is famous for Sidare-zakuras. There were many large Shidare-zakuras but most of them were not full bloom yet. There is one Sendai-shidare in good condition.
Thanks, Mariko! What was it about the 'Jindai-akebono' that made you think the trees were that and not 'Daybreak' (what we would call 'Akebono' here)?
Hi, Wendy. I’m sorry I can’t answer your question quickly. It’s a very good question as a cherry scout in Vancouver!! The weather wasn’t good to take pictures of Jindai-Akebono, so you can’t see well. If you see them on your eyes, you won’t think they are Akebono. Akebono has pale pink petals which are rounder than Somei-yoshino. When buds are opening, I think they look like balls. I can’t find good photo of them and it took so long to answer. Jindai-akebono has tint of dark pink at the edge of the petals and the center part is almost white. Its shape is more like Somei-yoshino but I think flowers are smaller than Somei-yoshino. I have posted Jindai-Akebono in the front garden of National Theater near Chidori-ga-fuchi. (#188) But I didn’t understand why it was called Jindai-Akebono and Akebono was called as America in Japan because there were cherries called Akebono. But I hadn’t seen ant cherry called Akebono even in web or books. This time I checked well and understand the reason. The reason why it is called Jindai-akebono: There was one Akebono tree which came from America. They grafted Akebono to have more but one of them showed the different character from others. So for a while it didn’t have name plate. But it was a very beautiful cherry, many people asked the name. They asked a specialist from Japan Flower Society and he identified it was a new cultivar. He named it Jindai-Akebono using Jindai, the place it was found, and Akebono, the name plate it had first. The reason why now Akebono is called America in Japan: There were some cherries which were called Akebono-zakura in Hokkaido. They were identified as a kind of O-yama-zakura and a kind of Hybrid between Kasumi-zakura and O-yama-zakura. Now there are also Jindai-akebono. So Japan flower association decided to call it America after the country name it was found. I think Akebono is a better name for those beautiful trees than America. I think America is rather direct name and Akebono has sense of . But Japanese specialists might think its color is bright and direct as America. As I have written at #188, now Japan Flower Society recommends Jindai-Akebono and planting it instead of Somei-yoshino because it has for which brooms and has longer life. But it can’t grow as big as Somei-yoshino. Also it takes longer time to grow. I wonder it could make beautiful cherry site as Somei-yoshino in the future.
First Posting in 2025 It’s March 19, 2025, today. It was very cold this morning. It snowed a little. But it was heavy wet snow called “Botan-yuki”―Peony Petal snow because snowflakes were very large. The snow melted in a short time. It will be very warm from March 21. We had average temperature and very dry winter. It rained only 30 mm in Tokyo in 3 months from December to February. It might have made the growth of the cherry buds rather slow. Now we have some cold days and some warm days in turn. But they say it will be very warm from March 21. Now most of the weather forecasts predict the sample tree of Somei-yoshino at Yasukuni Shrine, Tokyo will start blooming on March24th, 2025 and become full bloom between March 29 and April 1. Translated Japanese sites----Blooming date March 18: Tenki-jp March 19 : Tenki Jp Weather News Jp English site of Japan-gide.com-----Full bloom or worth viewing date 2025 Cherry Blossom Forecast I visited Koishikawa Botanical Garden on Friday, March 14, 2025. Already some early blooming cherries were blooming there. Kan-hi-zakura Two Okames Early blooming Oshima-zakura Usually Oshima-zakura blooms with Somei-yoshino. But it’s a wild cherry, so it is rich in variety. Oh-kan-zakura; Once there were two O-kan-zakuras there. But they were broken in the storm. New branchers came from one stump and now blooming again. Late-blooming Mumes and many kinds of Camellias were blooming. Many kinds of orchids were blooming in the green houses.
★Meteorological Agency declared the blooming of Somei-yoshino in Tokyo on March 24 as it was forecasted. It suddenly became very warm from March 21. On March 23, the temperature jumped up to 25,8 degrees. The sample tree at Yasukuni shrine started to bloom on March 24. Usually the tree blooms before most of other trees in centre part of Tokyo, but this year some Somei-yoshino trees on the streets opened 10 % when Meteorological Agency declared the blooming of Somei-yoshinos. Also many early blooming cherries showed beautiful flowers at that time. ★On March 24, 2025 Beni-shidare and Maple trees in Kanda-Jinbo-cho: Usually new leaves of maple come out after somei-yoshino starts blooming. But this tree had green leaves before Somei-yoshinos. One Jugatsu-zakura in Kanda-Nishiki-cho had continued blooming since January. The same tree on January 15 ★On March 25, Koishikawa botanical Garden Somei-yoshinos ************* Beni-shidare **************** Shidare-zakura Edo-higan ******************************* Unknown red cherries Around the new building complex at Kasuza Station Yoko The cherry which have a name plate of Edo-higan but I wonder it really is so.
★On Sunday, March 30. 2025, Meteorological Agency declared full bloom of Somei−yoshino in Tokyo. Koishikawa Botanical Garden was very busy. Somei−yoshinos and one beni−shidare were full bloom. There were so many people that the back door of the garden which is almost always closed was opened. My husband could see Cherries which we can't usually see. I couldn't visit there because I had a meeting and a rehearsal of my amateur orchestra. I visited Morishita Comunity Centre. The weather wasn't very good in the morning but there was a small local cherry festival I didn't know. During cherry season, there are many things which have something connecting to Sakura. Japanese are enjoying Sakura very much. Georama with Cherry trees ****Cherry Coffee ＆ Sweets
★Friday, April 4, 2025 Peak Blodm in my neighborhood After Somei−yoshino became full bloom in Tokyo, it became cold and wet for 4 days. April 4th was the parfect day for Hanami. I went Koishikawa botanical Garden, Kichijo-ji Temple and Ueno by bicycle. ★Koishikawa Botanical Garden https://photos.app.goo.gl/BAfP2kAXRPYNKfz16 Japanese Maple Lane was beautiful with fresh leaves. Oshima-zakura Yama-zakura Murasaki-zakura ★Kichijo-ji Tdemple Usually Sidare-zakura & Beni-Sidare bloom first, then Somei−yoshino, then Yae-beni−shidare. Yae-zakura blooms the last. But this year every cherry is blooming together. Semi-double cherry ★I rode to Ueno. I became very tired. I wanted to sit at the coffee shop under the cherry trees, but I couldn't find the bicycle parking. I found a parking space at National Children Library. Then I found a sign of the cafe there. It was a nice cafe looking cherry trees. I had a piece of cake for spring there. Ueno Erea Ueno was very busy.
★Saturday. April 5, 2025 The Omiya Bonsai Art Gallery, Saitama The Omiya Bonsai Art Gallery, Saitama reopened on March 21, 2025, after renovation of the pond in the garden. Now I’m doing a part-time job of weeding and garden keeping. The company I’m working for did the renovation and we did weeding before it opened. We always work when the Gallery is closed, so I hadn’t seen Bonsais inside. I visited there with my husband. One old Somei−yoshino at the entrance and several Somei-yoshinos at the parking lot were full bloom. There was one large cherry bonsai in the gallery. It was large and good shaped , but it was just starting to bloom. Unfortunately, taking photos is forbitten in most part of the gallery The Garden was beautiful under the blue sky. There were many beautiful bonsais in spring there. Two small Shidare-zakura bonsais were after peak bloom. There is a Bonsai shop at the back. After we watched all the place, we had lunch at the restaurant just in front of the Bonsai Art Gallery.
